An answer focusing on the question “Is research into virtual communication methodologies at the expense of research that might solve or ameliorate the serious global issues of our time fundamentally irresponsible?”
Defining ILS and VLE According to the E-learning Guild, an Immersive Learning Simulation (ILS), similar to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), is a system that combines simulation, pedagogy and fun to create a truly engaging and behavior-changing form of learning (Wexler et al., 2007). Scholars and educators alike question the validity of this form of learning because many times ILSs and VLEs are viewed synonymously with games, which creates a major barrier for those desiring to keep a serious spin on learning.
The word game can be interpreted many ways. Games progressed greatly from the days of Number Crunchers and The Oregon Trail. Today, educators rely on serious games to teach anything from driving an automobile in Malaysia to biology through virtual dissection of animals here in the United States. A serious game, as defined by the E-Learning Guild, is an optimized blend of simulation, game element, and pedagogy that leads to the student being motivated by, and immersed into, the purpose and goals of a learning integration. Serious games use meaningful contextualization and optimized experience to successfully integrate the addictive nature of well-designed games with serious learning goals(Wexler et al., 2007). It is clear that not all games are first person shooters, nonsensical role playing games, or otherwise just focused on being played for entertainment factors. Games are used in corporate trainings, higher education settings and by other entities.
Direction of Current Research
Current game-related research can be broken into many sectors. The following delves deeper into a few of the sectors to highlight more recent and relevant research. A simple search of immersive learning environments on Google brings up approximately 150,000 hits. The few sectors I included do not even begin to encompass all available research in the realm of serious games.
Legal Courtrooms
Recreating crime scenes and accidents help juries to more fully understand a particular incident. Providing jury members first-hand experience of the event helps to impeach evidence brought forth by dishonest witnesses. By using a virtual world, the jurors are able to take a trip into the event together, rather than interpreting the events individually to recreate the incident on their own. Critics say that using virtual worlds is pointless because there are procedures available for visits to crime scenes when needed. It is important to remember though that jurors may have physical limitations that would prevent them from seeing some scenes, the scene may be a distance away from the court room, or the weather may not permit a visit to the scene. Additionally, crime scenes many times do not remain sealed up to and during a trial. Therefore, a visit to the scene may prove fruitless to all involved. Bailenson's, et. al (2006) research demonstrates that virtual environment technology is mature enough for consideration to be used in the courtroom setting. According to the researchers, it is possible to:
...create an extremely realistic schematic of the exact site on which a crime or accident occurred, including inanimate objects from the scene, witnesses, victims, and suspects from the scene, atmospheric conditions form the scene such as bright lift or fog, background noise such as traffic sounds, and literally any sensory information that may have been on the scene.
Since 2006, technological advancements continue to enhance this form of immersive technology.
Higher Education
Faculty and students within the Communications Media Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) regularly conduct research relating to ILS and the virtual world Second Life. A specific research project, conducted by Bazala, Choi, Riffle, and Lenze (2009), aimed at identifying differences between students' perceptions in regards to using virtual worlds in a distance education setting. While the researchers found that males were more likely to skip class than females if it were held in a virtual environment, the research team was unable to identify why males were more likely than females to skip classes. Survey limitations and sparse literature in the area prohibited further analysis of the collected data.
IUP is not the only higher education institution researching ISL in education. At an Immersive Education conference at Harvard University in 2007, researchers presented ways in which virtual spaces can more than entertain students (Foster, 2007). Scholars demonstrated how they were able to build interactive learning experiences capable of gaining attention without using violence. Vital to the success of ILS is educators ability to "mix and match" while constructing the virtual learning environment. This mixing and matching allows instructors to customize the experience to the needs of the students involved.
At Risk Students
Barab and Dede (2007) define at-risk students as those students unable to meet their full potential in a traditional classroom setting. This can include students from lower socioeconomic status unprepared for college or without support and understanding at home to students with learning disabilities. Additionally, students who are not significantly challenged in the classroom may be classified at at-risk.
Virtual learning experiences engage students and provide opportunities for student involvement (Barab & Dede, 2007). Students with low self-efficacy are able to get a fresh start. In the class room they may be branded, academically speaking, as a low level student. ILSs move students beyond the borders of a brick and mortar classroom, and allow learning opportunities through the use of simulations (opportunities they might not otherwise have had the opportunity in which to participate).
In the Fall 2009 semester, doctoral students enrolled in a games and simulations course at IUP rapidly developed an ILS using Second Life to recreated the first Thanksgiving. Beyond the work of these doctoral students, other ILSs exist within this virtual world including a replica of the Sistine Chapel and an island designed to promote AIDS awareness and education. It is highly unlikely, due to today's financial constraints, that any educational institution would have the ability to create such lifelike and immersive environments in real life. Virtual worlds allows students to experience environments they might only ever dreamed of experiencing. Validity of ILS and VLE Research
Active research agendas advance society and open doors to things once never even imagined. It is impossible to think that all the researchers in existence focus on one issue or idea at a time, solve it, then moving on to the next one. A chart does not exist to dictate to researchers exactly what they have to look into, in what order, and why. Researchers have different specialties. It is fundamentally irresponsible to think that spreading knowledge to create new and more advanced researchers is fundamentally irresponsible.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology maintains a website for games played through PDA's using the Palm operating system. When there are games like Virus Game which “asks you to meet as many people as possible without getting sick” it is hard to put up a fight against communications researchers (Skiba 2008). Adapting that game for people in third world countries could save lives; just as would research pertaining to other serious issues such as global warming and cancer.
There is no concrete way to quantify how much time is being “lost” to researching communication methodologies rather than researching the world's problems "other" problems. When games “have several attributes associated with learning, such as problem solving, transfer of learning, use of research skills like testing hypotheses, and social and experiential learning environments” how is it possible to say it is irresponsible to research communication methodologies that better these games (Skiba 2008)? Instead, leave the search for the cure to cancer to those who have a specialized medical background. Allow those who are more suited to researching communication methodologies find new ways to teach the next group of medical researchers through ILS.
References
Bailenson, J., Blascovich, J., Beall, A., & Noveck, B. (2006). Courtroom Applications of Virtual Environments, Immersive Virtual Environments, and Collaborative Virtual Environments. Law & Policy, 28(2).
Barab, S., & Dede, C. (2007). Games and Immersive Participatory Simulations for Science Eduction: An
Emerging Type of Curricula. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1). Retrieved
September 19, 2010, from Academic Search Premier.
Bazala, L., Choi, S., Riffle, S., & Lenze, J. (2009). Distance Learning in Virtual Game
Environments. Journal of Communications Media Studies, 1(1).
Foster, A. L. (2007). 'Immersive Education' Submerges Students in Online Worlds Made for
Learning. Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(12). Retrieved September 19, 2010, from
Academic Search Complete.
Skiba, D. J. (2008). Nursing Education 2.0: Games as Pedagogical Platforms. Nursing Education Perspectives, 29(3).
Wexler, S., Aldrich, C., Johannigman, J., Oehlert, M., Quinn, C., & Van Barneveld, A. (2007). Guild Research 360 Report on Immersive Learning Simulations(Publication). Retrieved September 19,
2010, from ELearning Guild website: http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:KJYRYjJAHQQJ:scholar.google.com/+immersive+lear
ning+simulations&hl=en&as_sdt=800000000000&as_vis=
Defining ILS and VLE
According to the E-learning Guild, an Immersive Learning Simulation (ILS), similar to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), is a system that combines simulation, pedagogy and fun to create a truly engaging and behavior-changing form of learning (Wexler et al., 2007). Scholars and educators alike question the validity of this form of learning because many times ILSs and VLEs are viewed synonymously with games, which creates a major barrier for those desiring to keep a serious spin on learning.
The word game can be interpreted many ways. Games progressed greatly from the days of Number Crunchers and The Oregon Trail. Today, educators rely on serious games to teach anything from driving an automobile in Malaysia to biology through virtual dissection of animals here in the United States. A serious game, as defined by the E-Learning Guild, is an optimized blend of simulation, game element, and pedagogy that leads to the student being motivated by, and immersed into, the purpose and goals of a learning integration. Serious games use meaningful contextualization and optimized experience to successfully integrate the addictive nature of well-designed games with serious learning goals(Wexler et al., 2007). It is clear that not all games are first person shooters, nonsensical role playing games, or otherwise just focused on being played for entertainment factors. Games are used in corporate trainings, higher education settings and by other entities.
Direction of Current Research
Current game-related research can be broken into many sectors. The following delves deeper into a few of the sectors to highlight more recent and relevant research. A simple search of immersive learning environments on Google brings up approximately 150,000 hits. The few sectors I included do not even begin to encompass all available research in the realm of serious games.
Legal Courtrooms
Recreating crime scenes and accidents help juries to more fully understand a particular incident. Providing jury members first-hand experience of the event helps to impeach evidence brought forth by dishonest witnesses. By using a virtual world, the jurors are able to take a trip into the event together, rather than interpreting the events individually to recreate the incident on their own. Critics say that using virtual worlds is pointless because there are procedures available for visits to crime scenes when needed. It is important to remember though that jurors may have physical limitations that would prevent them from seeing some scenes, the scene may be a distance away from the court room, or the weather may not permit a visit to the scene. Additionally, crime scenes many times do not remain sealed up to and during a trial. Therefore, a visit to the scene may prove fruitless to all involved. Bailenson's, et. al (2006) research demonstrates that virtual environment technology is mature enough for consideration to be used in the courtroom setting. According to the researchers, it is possible to:
...create an extremely realistic schematic of the exact site on which a crime or accident occurred, including inanimate objects from the scene, witnesses, victims, and suspects from the scene, atmospheric conditions form the scene such as bright lift or fog, background noise such as traffic sounds, and literally any sensory information that may have been on the scene.
Since 2006, technological advancements continue to enhance this form of immersive technology.
Higher Education
Faculty and students within the Communications Media Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) regularly conduct research relating to ILS and the virtual world Second Life. A specific research project, conducted by Bazala, Choi, Riffle, and Lenze (2009), aimed at identifying differences between students' perceptions in regards to using virtual worlds in a distance education setting. While the researchers found that males were more likely to skip class than females if it were held in a virtual environment, the research team was unable to identify why males were more likely than females to skip classes. Survey limitations and sparse literature in the area prohibited further analysis of the collected data.
IUP is not the only higher education institution researching ISL in education. At an Immersive Education conference at Harvard University in 2007, researchers presented ways in which virtual spaces can more than entertain students (Foster, 2007). Scholars demonstrated how they were able to build interactive learning experiences capable of gaining attention without using violence. Vital to the success of ILS is educators ability to "mix and match" while constructing the virtual learning environment. This mixing and matching allows instructors to customize the experience to the needs of the students involved.
At Risk Students
Barab and Dede (2007) define at-risk students as those students unable to meet their full potential in a traditional classroom setting. This can include students from lower socioeconomic status unprepared for college or without support and understanding at home to students with learning disabilities. Additionally, students who are not significantly challenged in the classroom may be classified at at-risk.
Virtual learning experiences engage students and provide opportunities for student involvement (Barab & Dede, 2007). Students with low self-efficacy are able to get a fresh start. In the class room they may be branded, academically speaking, as a low level student. ILSs move students beyond the borders of a brick and mortar classroom, and allow learning opportunities through the use of simulations (opportunities they might not otherwise have had the opportunity in which to participate).
In the Fall 2009 semester, doctoral students enrolled in a games and simulations course at IUP rapidly developed an ILS using Second Life to recreated the first Thanksgiving. Beyond the work of these doctoral students, other ILSs exist within this virtual world including a replica of the Sistine Chapel and an island designed to promote AIDS awareness and education. It is highly unlikely, due to today's financial constraints, that any educational institution would have the ability to create such lifelike and immersive environments in real life. Virtual worlds allows students to experience environments they might only ever dreamed of experiencing.
Validity of ILS and VLE Research
Active research agendas advance society and open doors to things once never even imagined. It is impossible to think that all the researchers in existence focus on one issue or idea at a time, solve it, then moving on to the next one. A chart does not exist to dictate to researchers exactly what they have to look into, in what order, and why. Researchers have different specialties. It is fundamentally irresponsible to think that spreading knowledge to create new and more advanced researchers is fundamentally irresponsible.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology maintains a website for games played through PDA's using the Palm operating system. When there are games like Virus Game which “asks you to meet as many people as possible without getting sick” it is hard to put up a fight against communications researchers (Skiba 2008). Adapting that game for people in third world countries could save lives; just as would research pertaining to other serious issues such as global warming and cancer.
There is no concrete way to quantify how much time is being “lost” to researching communication methodologies rather than researching the world's problems "other" problems. When games “have several attributes associated with learning, such as problem solving, transfer of learning, use of research skills like testing hypotheses, and social and experiential learning environments” how is it possible to say it is irresponsible to research communication methodologies that better these games (Skiba 2008)? Instead, leave the search for the cure to cancer to those who have a specialized medical background. Allow those who are more suited to researching communication methodologies find new ways to teach the next group of medical researchers through ILS.
References
Bailenson, J., Blascovich, J., Beall, A., & Noveck, B. (2006). Courtroom Applications of Virtual
Environments, Immersive Virtual Environments, and Collaborative Virtual Environments. Law
& Policy, 28(2).
Barab, S., & Dede, C. (2007). Games and Immersive Participatory Simulations for Science Eduction: An
Emerging Type of Curricula. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1). Retrieved
September 19, 2010, from Academic Search Premier.
Bazala, L., Choi, S., Riffle, S., & Lenze, J. (2009). Distance Learning in Virtual Game
Environments. Journal of Communications Media Studies, 1(1).
Foster, A. L. (2007). 'Immersive Education' Submerges Students in Online Worlds Made for
Learning. Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(12). Retrieved September 19, 2010, from
Academic Search Complete.
Skiba, D. J. (2008). Nursing Education 2.0: Games as Pedagogical Platforms. Nursing Education
Perspectives, 29(3).
Wexler, S., Aldrich, C., Johannigman, J., Oehlert, M., Quinn, C., & Van Barneveld, A. (2007). Guild
Research 360 Report on Immersive Learning Simulations(Publication). Retrieved September 19,
2010, from ELearning Guild website:
http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:KJYRYjJAHQQJ:scholar.google.com/+immersive+lear
ning+simulations&hl=en&as_sdt=800000000000&as_vis=